Sunday, October 7, 2012
Does bone marrow have any effect on inflammatory bowel disease?
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a term that refers to both ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a disease of the colon in which inflammation of the lining of the large intestine occurs.Crohn's disease (CD) causes inflammation of the lining and wall of the large and/or small intestine. When inflamed, the lining of the intestinal wall is red and swollen, becomes ulcerated, and bleeds.
Recently scientists have been found a new relation between inflammatory bowl disease and bone marrow( the flexible tissue found in the hollow interior of bones). This interesting subject can help us treat gut's disorders through the bone marrow.
According to the study that Pam Fraker and a team of MSU researchers did on mice ,Frank focused on bone marrow and she noticed that when colitis was induced in mice,there was a significant and fast changes in mice bone marrow.She also saw a big difference in colitis's signs and symptoms such as ,anemia and swelling ,increases in monocytes and neutrophils(cells which are produced in the bone marrow that fight the infection, but increase the swelling in intestines) in a bad way,were reflected in the bone marrow.As we can see by this research, the bone marrow's reaction actually increased the level of inflammatory bowel disease instead of curing and healing it.
Any changes in the bone marrow will some how reflect the damage that inflammatory bowel diseases cause in the digestive system. Rather than making red blood cells and lymphocytes, which are key to immune defense and healing, the bone marrow adds to the issue with infection-fighting cells that increase intestinal swelling.
“It’s possible that if we could reduce bone marrow’s ability to produce inflammatory cells that we could reduce the severity of colitis and Crohn’s disease,” said Fraker, who co-authored the study with MSU colleagues Laura McCabe, professor of physiology and radiology, and Mark Trottier, research specialist. “This could limit the damage that the disease causes and reduce the number of patients needing surgery.”
Even though by looking at this research we can get some ideas and information about IBD and bone marrow and using these information can help us treat people who are dealing with this despise, there are still much more researches, observations and collecting data that has to be done in terms of getting more scientific evidence to be use in terms of improving inflammatory bowel disease treatment.
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/09/20/1213854109.full.pdf+html
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According to another article regarding Michigan State's research, "the symptoms of colitis, such as [...] unhealthy increases in monocytes and neutrophils, (cells that fight infection but exacerbate the excessive swelling in intestines) were reflected in the bone marrow" (Cameron, MSU). It is also stated that when bone marrow increases its production of monocytes and neutrophils, it does so at the expense of making lymphocytes and red blood cells, which are key factors in immune defense (Cameron, MSU). However, researches at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)discovered that mesenchymal stem cells which are particularly known to "control several immune system activities, allowed the regeneration of the gastrointestinal lining in mice with a genetic mutation leading to multiorgan autoimmune disease," such as inflammatory bowel disease (Rajashri, Medindia).
ReplyDeleteThey determined this by conducting an experiment with a genetic strain of mice that had deficiency in regulatory T cells. Regulatory T cells suppress the activity of self-reactive immune cells, resulting in autoimmune disease. These mice were treated with infusions of either mesenchymal stem cells or regulatory T cells, and after a week, the researchers examined the effects on tissues from the pancreas,liver and the distal ileum (the lower end of the small intestine) which are usually attacked by autoimmune reactions (Rajashri, Medindia.
Although they did not see much improvement in the pancreas or liver, however, in four of the six MSC-treated mice, "intestinal tissues appeared almost identical to those of normal mice [...] structural defects in the intestinal lining of untreated autoimmune mice had disappeared in the MSC-treated mice, an improvement seen in only one of six mice treated with regulatory T cells" (Rajashri, Medindia).
Inflammatory Bowel Disease can Be Treated by Bone Marrow Stem Cells - Page 2 | Medindia http://www.medindia.net/news/Inflammatory-Bowel-Disease-can-Be-Treated-by-Bone-Marrow-Stem-Cells-40943-2.htm?q=A/WEjVLjxd0lOHRlALpz9Csw5+NwPSSWy5ZlX0PU#ixzz28pClUiVV
"Bone marrow amps up bowel diseases" http://www.futurity.org/health-medicine/bone-marrow-amps-up-bowel-diseases/
It's interesting that the lining in the bone marrow is so closely related to the intestinal lining. I looked on the internet and I, too, found Michigan's recently published research. From what I can gather, it looks like MSU wanted to see how IBD impacted bone marrow, specifically how colitis affected the hematopoietic processes in the marrow.
ReplyDelete"Therefore, to carefully assess how changes in barrier function impact hematopoiesis, we used a DSS mouse model of colitis. DSS treatment induces colitis by increasing gut epithelial barrier permeability, which is thought to allow gut bacteria to activate immune responses and promote colitis. The data will show that colitis made substantial changes in lymphopoiesis in both the marrow and the thymus with major losses in pre-T and pre-B cells within 15 d. Likewise, there were substantial reductions in erythrocytic lineages that would contribute to and extend the anemia in DSStreated mice. Conversely, cells of the monocytic and granulocytic lineages increased significantly in the marrow and peripheral blood of mice with colitis, which could promote or sustain inflammation and tissue damage in the gut. These important findings clearly show that colitis significantly alters hematopoietic
processes."
Biological Sciences - Immunology:
Mark D. Trottier, Regina Irwin, Yihang Li, Laura R. McCabe, and Pamela J. Fraker
"Enhanced production of early lineages of monocytic and granulocytic cells in mice with colitis"
PNAS 2012 ; published ahead of print September 24, 2012, doi:10.1073/pnas.1213854109
It is really interesting to consider the connections between IBD and other areas of the body. It makes sense to me that changes in the bones marrow would occur when an IBD flare up happens. During a flare up, symptoms are worse and the inflammation is worse. In order for this to happen, immune cells have to show up and cause damage. Presumably they're coming from the marrow and other organs involved with immune responses (thymus, spleen, lymph nodes). I wonder if there has been any research focusing on these other organs as well.
ReplyDeleteAlso, as a sidenote, I thought it was a little strange for Fraker to say, “It’s possible that if we could reduce bone marrow’s ability to produce inflammatory cells that we could reduce the severity of colitis and Crohn’s disease."
I think it's important to remember that inflammatory processes in our bodies are not always bad-- they're also protective. If we reduced the marrow's ability to make these inflammatory cells, it could hinder or hurt the inflammatory response when we actually need it. What happens if we alter the marrow's ability to make these immune cells and cure a patient's IBD, but then the patient gets sick and has an impaired immune response? Just something to think about!
you actually point out an interesting question,I agree with you ,but based on this research they didn't actually talk about this issue.there has to be more research into this subject in order to get a better understanding of what we are dealing with in terms of IBD and bone marrow.
ReplyDelete